1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic commerce, and more particularly to conducting electronic commerce by enabling creation of vision-enabled content.
2. The Relevant Art
Activities such as advertising, entertainment and education are commonly conducted over a network such as the Internet. The creator of an activity conducts that activity by publishing content which then becomes available to users who are connected to the network and have the necessary program to receive and display that content, such as a web browser. For example, advertisements in the form of linked banners appear on a multitude of websites. Streaming audio and video as well as audio and video clips have become commonplace. Further, virtual classrooms and interactive learning materials are being used for long-distance learning.
Such activities, however, are constrained by the limitation of the technology being used to send, receive and navigate them. Users receiving content over a network currently interact with the content with input devices such as a mouse and keyboard. As a result, true interaction with the content must be left to the imagination. Users viewing an advertisement for shirts, for example, may be able to select different styles and colors of shirts, but would not be able to see himself or herself wearing the shirt. Since the user does not know how he or she looks in the shirt, the user is less likely to purchase the shirt from the advertiser and will more likely go to a store where the user may try the shirt on before purchase. Thus, the advertiser will probably lose the sale.
The problem is similar in entertainment. There are currently several products on the market which allow replay of downloaded audio and video. For example, Windows Media Player by Microsoft® Corporation and RealPlayer by RealNetworks, Inc. allow an entertainment producer to transmit audio and video clips as well as streaming audio and video. Both of these products allow the user to interact with the content in the limited sense that the user is able to select the clips and streams and start and stop playback at will.
Unfortunately, these products are directed towards playback of content alone. Most users prefer to watch motion video on a television rather than over the Internet, typically because of the location and smaller size of the computer display. If the content is the same, there is little reason to watch it on the computer. There needs to be something that makes a user want to watch the content on the computer, such as a vision-based interaction between the user and the content.
Network gaming is a popular pastime for many people. While gaming technology has come far, gaming is still very impersonal in that the animated characters that represent each player bear only the likeness given it by the programmer and no resemblance to the actual player. Game play would be much more enjoyable if the animated characters of a game bore the likenesses of the associated players.
Adding to the impersonality of gameplay are game controllers. The realism of the game can often depend on how the player's commands are input into the computer. Movement of a user to make the animated character perform a similar movement is much more desirable than pushing a button to make a movement. Take, for example, a boxing game. A player would be much more likely to enjoy the game if the player could physically move his or her arm in a punching motion and see the animated character make a similar move in the game.